Does an ancient Amazonian "fertilizer" hold the key to feeding the world?

Seeding Reservation Forest Lands with “Terra Preta”
The ancients of the Amazon held the secret to producing a kind of fertilizer called biochar that far exceeds anything modern science has produced. It does this by turning ordinary dirt into "terra preta," or black earth. Tribes that employ this method to fertilize the farm and forestry land on their reservations may heal the Earth and boost their productivity--and profitability--at the same time.

Terra Preta
Amazonian Terra Preta is created using a special kind of charcoal called biochar. Mixed with fertilizers it increases productivity by almost 900 percent. Used by itself it increases productivity by a sustainable 300 percent, evidently by establishing and sustaining a process similar to composting that can endure for thousands of years and produce topsoils that are several feet thick. The first time I read about this was in the book, 1491, by Charles C. Mann:

“Throughout Amazonia, farmers prize terra preta for its great productivity; some have worked it for years with minimal fertilization. … Indians apparently made terra preta by a process that Christoph Steiner, a University of Bayreuth soil scientist, has dubbed “slash-and-char.” Instead of completely burning organic matter to ash, ancient farmers burned it incompletely to make charcoal, then stirred the charcoal into the soil. … In a preliminary test run at creating terra preta, Steiner, Wenceslau Teixeira of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Enterprise, and Wolfang Zech of the University of Bayreuth applied a variety of treatments involving charcoal and fertilizers for three years to rice and sorghum plots outsize Manaus. … Plots with charcoal alone grew little, but those treated with a combination of charcoal and fertilizer yielded as much as 880 percent more than plots with fertilizer alone.” – Charles C. Mann, 1491, pp 307 – 308

"Terra preta (black earth), which is distributed over large areas in the Amazon forest, is now widely accepted as a product of indigenous soil management. The development of this fertile soil allowed agriculture and silviculture in the previously hostile environment; meaning that large portions of the Amazon rainforest are probably the result of centuries of human management, rather than naturally occurring as has previously been supposed." - Wikipedia, Amazon rainforest

Don’t we already get that from burning slash left over from logging? No. The charcoal produced by burning is not porous enough. The best charcoal for this purpose, also called "biochar," comes from low oxygen charring.

Biochar from Biomass Gasifiers
The ancients of the Amazon did this through perpetual “slash and char” burning that would not be appropriate, today. But we have something that’s even better: biomass gasifiers. One that produces both "biochar" and electricity is the ALL Power Labs biomass gasifiers and power generation systems, and it could provide the basis for a tribal business—or personal business—regardless of whether the economy recovers or collapses.

It turns biomass into electricity and produces the same kind of charcoal used by the ancients of the Amazon to create terra preta, the incredibly-fertile soil of the Amazon Rain Forest. The All Power Labs unit produces only about 20kW of electricity and the typical American home uses up to 15 kW, which means that one unit is not going to generate enough electricity to power a grid. So really this would be a terra preta business that also generates electricity. But this is exactly the kind of business that a tribe should go into because unlike most fertilizers used today, biochar makes soils healthier.

Like the small businesses that sell wood chips, it could either deliver or accommodate self-serve customers, including small commercial delivery companies who could make a business of buying a load of charcoal for delivery to their own customers. That would reduce the amount tribes would need to invest up front to get the business started.

Below are some YouTube videos covering the production and use of Terra Preta. You will note that there are several designs that can be used to make this biochar, and that the ALL Power Labs gasifier is just one among many possible designs.

Untsa Uq'n Naway

Rod

Rod Van Mechelen is the publisher of The Backlash! @ Backlash.com and Cowlitz Country News. He is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and served for 9-1/2 years on the Cowlitz Indian Tribal Council. Cowlitz Country News is a private website and is neither affiliated with nor sanctioned by the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.